Second book
Topic: Reading
Okay, so it really should've been The Postwar Moment that was my second book of the year (and it will be my third, because I'm going to spend all weekend working on it), but I swear procrastination wasn't the problem. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel, is a lightning-fast read. I finished it in a couple days only reading on the tram and before I went to sleep. Longitude a well-crafted popular history of the efforts to develop an efficient and effective means to allow ships to determine their longitudinal position, thus enabling safer, faster sea travel.

At the heart of the narrative is the professional life of James Harrison, a self-taught watchmaker who, at the end of the eighteenth century, against long odds, conquered the difficulties involved in developing a clock that would maintain its time onboard a ship. Knowing the difference between the time at their current location and the time at the prime meridian would allow sailors to determine their distance from the prime meridian. Because, as if traveling long distances in chancy weather in small wooden ships wasn't scary enough, prior to the nearly-simultaneous development of Harrison's clock and more accurate means of astronomical navigation, determining longitude was very nearly a matter of guesswork. Fatal miscalculation was scarcely uncommon. The ability to determine longitude accurately was the key to more secure travel and shipping, and less risky exploration. Solving the problem of determining latitude was an obsession for governments, institutions and individuals.

Sobel deftly interweaves biographical information with social, political, and scientific history, all delivered in an engaging, conversational tone. Longitude is an entertaining and informative read, and I’m now looking forward to reading her next book, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love. Is it just me, or does Sobel have a knack for crafting interesting subtitles?

It's that time of year
Topic: Navel gazing
Time for contemplation, setting goals, taking stock, and general navel gazing. And this year, I have an audience on which to inflict it! Lucky, lucky you.

Scheherazade also thinks that this is an appropriate time for activities of this nature, which is why she pointed out the "signature strengths" survey at authentichappiness.org. We all know I can't keep away from the internet quizzes. Or keep the results to myself. So here's the abbreviated version of what the survey had to say about my "signature strengths":

1. Honesty, authenticity, and genuineness: You are down to earth and without pretense; you are a "real" person. (And I'm so grateful to the Blue Fairy for making me that way!)
2. Curiosity and interest in the world: You like exploration and discovery. (If I didn't know that my mom occasionally drops by, comments like this could lead me down some very inappropriate paths)
3. Love of learning: You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums - anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn. (Say it with me: neeeeerrrrrd!)
4. Appreciation of beauty and excellence: You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life. (All together now: snoooooooooooooob!)
5. Capacity to love and be loved: You value close relations with others. (Heh. Heh heh. Yes, I'm twelve. Come on - I get this and #2 and I'm not supposed to snicker?)

I guess it's obvious I have some mixed feelings about 'official' personality tests (despite all the fun I have with ones like 'Which Disney villainess are you?'*). I don't like picking 'the answer that best describes [me]' out of a list of five options. Of course, it doesn't help that my favorite answer to just about any question is 'it depends'. I look at multiple choice questions about my values or my reactions and think 'under what set of circumstances?' Although I'm not trying to discourage anyone from taking tests, just putting too much stock in the results. They can be useful tools, but then, so can astrology.

As tools go, though, I much prefer open-ended exercises like the Proust Questionnaire (this version borrowed from Searchblog):

What is your most marked characteristic?
Empathy

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Compassion

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Determination

What do you most value in your friends?
Curiosity, intelligence, wit, passion

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Selfishness

What is your favorite occupation?
Sitting under a tree on a summer afternoon, reading

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I don't really have one - don't think its possible. The closest I've come, though, has usually been on a long night spent talking and eating with close friends.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Failure

In which country would you like to live?
Croatia or Cambodia

Who are your favorite writers?
Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Sherman Alexie

Who are your favorite poets?
ee cummings, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Mr. Darcy

Who is your favorite heroine of fiction?
Thursday Next

Who are your favorite composers?
Bach and Beethoven

Who are your favorite painters?
Matisse, O'Keefe, Rembrandt, Van Gogh

What are your favorite names?
Michaela (as it's pronounced in German, Me'shellah) and Paul (Pavel, Paolo, etc.)

What is it that you most dislike?
Intentional rudeness

Which talent would you most like to have?
To play the piano well

How would you like to die?
With few regrets

What is your current state of mind?
Edgy

What is your motto?
'Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.'
-Immanuel Kant

(With all these 'what is...' questions, I rather feel as if I'm facing the Bridgekeeper.)

After all that, all that comes to mind for a conclusion is another classic phrase: 'Pbtha-pbtha-pbthat's all folks!'



*The Evil Queen from Snow White. Stupid test. I'm clearly Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.

Walking in a wint . . . whaaaaaat now?
Topic: Whatever
While out walking late in this balmy January evening, I passed by a house with lovely garden in which the gaudy gleam of Christmas decorations was accompanied by the soft sputtering hiss of a lawn sprinkler.

Is this what they mean by cognitive dissonance?

The new year's first book
Topic: Reading
I'm feeling a bit guilty that it was The Internationals by Sarah May. It really should have been The Postwar Moment, which has to be returned on Monday and will doubtless be important for my thesis, but can't be read in bed since I have to take notes on it. So The Internationals it was.

I wanted to like The Internationals. Its set in Macedonia, it's about the people who do relief and development work, it was nominated for the 2004 Orange Prize. In places, I did like it. There were moments, in the scenes set in and around Skopje, where I could place myself in the book, look around, and know exactly where I was and what I would be seeing. But I liked it mostly because it sharpened my own memories. I was very aware that the characters were created. They didn't ring true to me, although their dilemmas and development were interesting. Misha Glenny succinctly identifies the other problems I had with the book in his review for the Guardian, so I won't rehash them here, but they were irritating enough to prevent me from fully immersing myself in the story.

I wouldn't rule out reading one of May's other books, though. The narrative is well-paced, her writing style is clean and unaffected, and she creates very evocative descriptions of places. It's just unfortunate that reading The Internationals made me wish that someone who knows Macedonia had written it.

Enjoy me while I'm around
Topic: Uni
Because I just finished drafting a timetable for writing my thesis and all my coursework for the year, and it is brutal. I'm suddenly terrified all over again. Not so much, this time, by the scope of the project (my supervisor seems like the sort to reign me in if I start letting it get too overblown), but by the amount of work I have to do in a very limited time. Hopefully, only next semester will be really frantic. Since I'm taking a class in the late summer, I'll only have one class in my final semester. Or, who knows, maybe I'll finally get a handle on this time management thing everyone keeps telling me about, and I won't even be frantic next semester despite the amount of work I have to do. Looking at my timetable right now, though, that doesn't seem likely.

Right. Back to work, then.

An idea that might take some getting used to
Topic: Whatever
Got an odd jolt this morning as I was walking down the sidewalk and passed by a woman in about her early 40s wearing a nose ring. It seemed very incongruous, but then I realized that I'll probably fairly quickly get to the point where I barely notice, as it becomes more common over the next few years. And in about 25 years or so, I'll have friends who will be grandmothers with nose rings and tattoos. That idea struck me as really funny, because I've been wired to think that grandmothers look like this, or (in a more updated version) like this. So if this picture of a grandmother feels surprisingly new to me, how startling is it going to be to see not only the reality of a grandmother with a row of earrings up her ear, a nose ring, and a tattoo sleeve, but the first children's book that depicts a grandmother like that? I'm looking forward to that development in children's literature.

Required reading
Topic: Politics
The Washington Post published 'this story' on the Bush administration's plans not to request further funding from Congress for rebuilding in Iraq, which the Guardian drew on for it's pointed discussion of just how short the administration will fall of its stated plans for rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure. Funds that were intended for infrastructure projects had to be diverted to security measures due to the scale and persistence of the ongoing guerrilla conflict. Further evidence of just how thoroughly the Bush administration neglected to adequately plan for post-invasion security and stabilization needs in Iraq, if anyone needed it.

Say cheese
Topic: Ranting
Christmas is over, and I'm over Christmas, but I still had to laugh at Jellyfish's takedown of Carols by Candlelight, a Melbourne Christmas tradition that, between the Christmas Eve broadcast and Christmas day rebroadcast, I saw in its entirety. People, it was every bit as bad as Jellyfish claims, and I didn't spend all day waiting in line alone to see the thing. I was hoping for cheesy holiday goodness, but it was mostly bad evening gowns, worse "jokes", and mercilessly butchered carols. Jellyfish didn't mention, amidst all the other things that were bizarre about the evening, the aspect that I found the most unusual the Melbourne Gospel Choir, which was composed of young, telegenic people who could sing, but couldn't seem to sway in unison. It was oddly distracting. They sounded like a gospel choir, but they didn't look like any gospel choir I'd ever seen before.


Oops. This was not meant to go live this morning - I'd intended to save it as a draft and hit the wrong button. At least all the links work, for once, but I did feel the need to edit the text.

Quiet night
Topic: Whatever
Happy not-quite New Year! It's nearly 11:30 p.m. in Melbourne, and I'm going to bed soon. I haven't felt my best all week - the remnants of the cold I wasn't quite able to shake before Christmas, plus the heat, plus the cumulative effects of all the general holiday carryings-on are conspiring to make me feel rather unwell. It's quite the evil conspiracy, coming to fruition on the biggest party night of the year. So it's a quiet New Year's Eve for me. After all, the last thing I need right now is a night that lasts well into tomorrow and takes a day or more to recover from. Although, since I put it that way, I am suddenly and entirely against my better judgement tempted to try to make it downtown by midnight. ::grins:: Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year to you all!

Grounded for life
Topic: Odds and ends

"I don't think I will ever leave him in the house alone again," she said. "He showed a lack of judgment."

So says the mother of Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida who took a solo, and parentally unauthorized, trip to Iraq on his Christmas vacation. His story is that he was 'going the extra mile' for his high school journalism course by practicing immersion journalism on a grand scale. He skipped a week of school, spent a large sum of money that his parents had given him, and scared the daylights out of his poor parents.

Hassan's trip included an attempt to cross into Iraq through the Kuwaiti border, which was prevented by border closings around the Iraqi elections, a detour to Lebanon, and a Christmas flight into Baghdad. Considering that, after being picked up by the US military in Baghdad and escorted to the embassy, his thoughts on his thwarted plan to drive from Kuwait City to Baghdad were:

"If they'd let me in from Kuwait, I probably would have died," ... "That would have been a bad idea"

I'm thinking that his mother won't be changing her mind about letting him out of the house alone any time soon.

The full story is here on AP Yahoo News. It's sweet, in a frightening way. Hassan appears to be intensely idealistic, possessed of boundless optimism and that peculiarly adolescent sense of indestructibility that tends to preclude sober consideration of consequences. I hope he finds worthy causes closer to home to devote his energy to until he's old enough to do the work he wants to do in an official capacity. Or, at the very least, until he's old enough not to be grounded for attempting to do it.

Update: The press must be thrilled that it has a sensational human interest story with a happy ending and a highly photogenic family to cover. Farris Hassan is back, very sensibly cancelled a press conference, and prompted an amusing turn of phrase from the president of his school, who described the whole episode as 'an egregiously interesting escapade.' Although, really, would one expect any less from someone whose name is just one letter away from this? Full coverage here.

I forgot to acknowledge Wonkette
(NSFW, but very funny, material at this link) as the source for the link to the original AP Yahoo News article on Hassan.